


The Doll

by dagas isa (dagas_isa)



Series: Born a Black Mage [1]
Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-16
Updated: 2006-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 07:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dagas_isa/pseuds/dagas%20isa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Machines don't understand when they've created something more than a puppet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doll

Mist engines whirred and huffed, releasing a hiss of dangerous steam every few seconds when the pressure against its tank grew unbearable. From the boiler, energy flowed into another machine, and there mixed and converted into something new.

A core, filled with souls of Gaia's dead for power, rides along on a conveyor belt, under the supervision of a researcher who monitors everything. This is his pet project, the key to retaining his grant to operate this combination laboratory and factory. He's close, very close to creating something no one has ever seen before.

The egg-shaped object passes under the machine that converted the mist energy into something tangible, and tar-like goo coats it like a skin. Too hot to touch now, it moves to another machine, this time shaping the malleable lump into something that resembles a human. Hands, legs, and a head emerge from the body, making a human-like object, a doll.

Clothes complete the facade of humanity. A hat to cover the lack of hair, gloves, pants, a jacket, and boots cover most of the suspicious black. Only a blank, shadowy face indicated that this creation was something not technically alive.

The machines know not what it created, but the researcher is ecstatic to give the command that will give the new puppet a semblance of life. "Vivi," he says, his voice barely controlled.

Yellow lights, placed to resemble eyes, flash and the doll moves towards him. "Vivi, Fire." He points to a target he set up for this exact moment. In perfectly controlled motions, the doll moves its limbs and produces fire, a magic it retains at its core.

"It works!" The man laughs at his triumph and sends a message to his superiors. He and his wife will eat well tonight. So caught up in the moment, he forgets to turn the doll off, knowing that the doll will not cast spells without an instruction to do so.

What he doesn't count on, is that the doll understands more than simple instructions, even now. What no one understands the signficance of is that, beyond a machine, the assembly line has given birth to something more alive.


End file.
